Deceptively Simple: An Analysis of “The Red Wheelbarrow” Anonymous College

William Carlos Williams’s poem titled “The Red Wheelbarrow” paints a picture of a wheelbarrow outside in the rain. It is composed of just sixteen words that are divided equally into four stanzas. At first glance, it may seem like a concise and straightforward poem. The author uses fundamental words that even a child could understand. Williams, however, managed to produce much complexity regardless of the shortness and simplicity of his work. The conciseness of the poem initially leaves the audience with a great deal of ambiguity as to what the author was trying to express, though Williams's writing ultimately indicates the theme of an appreciation for everyday yet intriguing sights such as the wheelbarrow itself.

Williams uses figurative language to poetically communicate how important the wheelbarrow is to the rest of the scene. Despite the fact that “The Red Wheelbarrow” lacks any sort of rhyme scheme, it does follow a general rhythm. Each stanza is composed of just four words and two lines. The first lines of each of the stanzas have three words while the last lines have just one, two-syllable word. Also, the first lines of the first and last stanzas have four syllables while the first lines of the second and third stanzas...